Competitions to come under scrutiny

In the process of making the ‘Excellence Score’ assigned to extra virgin olive oils equitable, Savantes is researching extra virgin olive oil competitions around the world with a view to including the most rigorous in the calculation of excellence.

The main criteria to be considered in the ranking of competitions will be:

• Entries being accepted from all producing regions
• Independence of the organising enterprise
• Rigour of the entry process including compliance of the extra virgin olive oils with international quality standards
• Experience, breadth and independence of the judging panel
• Processes in place to ensure that the oils bearing award claims and sold to consumers are the same as those that won the awards
• Retention of samples and processes in place to deal with any disputes i.e. Redress when an oil is deemed to be defective

The results of the research will be used to rank the competitions and available to users of the GOOD application.

Will ‘Value’ be the new aid to buying excellent extra virgin olive oil?

Value is a concept developed by Savantes to give consumers a realistic appraisal of the value for money of extra virgin olive oils presented to them on retail shelves.

Confronted with a range of positive and negative publicity surrounding the quality of extra virgin olive oils and the burgeoning award medals on bottles, quality seals and proprietary campaigns promoting new classifications such as ‘Ultra Premium’, consumers are understandably confused.

Value will give extra virgin olive purchasers a simple tool which gives extra virgin olive oils an ‘Excellence Score’ based on their performance in selected international competitions.

All the customer needs to do is enter the price of the oils on the shelf and the app does the rest, dividing the ‘Excellence Score’ by the price giving the Value. The customer can then get a GOOD idea of the high quality of the extra virgin olive oils being sold at a competitive price
.
For example: To qualify an extra virgin olive oil must be entered in at least 3 of the selected competitions.

Scores given are 5 for a Gold Medal, 3 for Silver, 1 for Bronze. The three highest scores are used if more than 3 competitions are eligible.

• EVOO 1 wins 3 gold medals and has an excellence score of 15.
• EVOO 2 wins 2 golds and a silver and has an excellence score of 13. 
• EVOO 3 wins 2 silvers and a bronze has an excellence score of 7. 

Once we have an excellence score we can give a Value = excellence score÷price.

If the retail price for all the products is $/€/£10 for a 500ml bottle (it doesn’t make any difference which currency is used) the ‘Values’ will be:

• EVOO1 – 15÷10 = 1.5
• EVOO2 – 13÷10 = 1.3
• EVOO3 – 7÷10   = 0.7

USA Short on Cost Effective Olive Oil Testing Facilities

For many Savantes participants the session on defects in olive oil was their first exposure to the full range of faults in olive oil. It was evident in the discussions that ensued that enterprises were committed to putting in place or enhancing in-house tasting panels and quality control systems. It was also apparent that there was a general lack of cost-effective, internationally accredited and independent testing facilities in the US.

There was a small percentage of olive oils presented for tasting which had possible defects, the suppliers of these oils will be informed of this with the suggestion that the oils be submitted to internationally accredited tasting panels for confirmation or otherwise of the extra virgin classification on the labels. In keeping with the international convention that these oils be classified by accredited panels, Savantes does not reveal the brand of the oils to participants to protect the integrity of the brand until the quality is properly and independently assessed.

Quality Standards and Labelling are Separate Issues

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has demurred from using the ‘Australian Standard’ for olive oil in pursuing prosecutions for alleged non-compliance. Perhaps it is time for the proponents of the standards to separate the multiple aims and deal with them sequentially.

The sections of the standards dealing with labelling can be dealt with first, while those that deal with quality can be pursued separately.

Time to Test Olive Oils against Other Vegetable Oils

One must question the logic of the continuous assault on imported olive oils that is taking place in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. While the main reason promulgated for this New World campaign is to increase the quality of olive oil supplied to consumers, many see it as a thinly disguised attempt to increase the sales of locally produced extra virgin olive oils. 

With the global access to local news and commentary, the danger of this approach is that the global brand of olive oil is permanently damaged and it will take more than a few new producing countries to repair the damage. The sales of olive oil are very price sensitive as we are seeing in Greece and Italy.

It is time we as an industry encouraged the comparison of the positive attributes olive oil – refined and extra virgin – with other vegetable oils, and in doing so, boost the global olive oil brand rather than tainting it.

Large importer of olive oil into the US first to join quality programme.

Pompeian Inc, one of the largest importers of olive oil into the United States, has become the first company to participate in the USDA quality programme for olive oil.

Reported in the Olive Oil Times, the move is the first direct response to efforts to improve the quality of olive oil available to consumers in the US.

Interestingly the first company to join the voluntary standard regime is an importer and the comment facility which follows the article in the Olive Oil Times is empty. Usually there is a lot of chatter following reports on quality – ironically this perceived win has failed to attract any accolades.

Read the article: http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/pompeian-usda-olive-oil-monitoring/25740